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I should add that the references to St Hildas in South Shields strikes a nerve as this is the same parish where my known Sanderson ancestors lived in the 1850s-60s.

One of my known Sandersons was a William Sanderson born 1825 who became a mariner and disappeared, presumably at sea or in some foreign land by 1850. Not to say that this is the same fellow as our Captain in Quebec but it shows the possibility of a merchant navy tradition in our 'clan' and a fondness for the name William. His father, born c.1798 in Sunderland, was another William. Not a mariner but a simple farm hand.

-DC

I spent some time focused on the cemetery itself and its 'residents'.

It is a cemetery within Quebec City, now closed and turned into a park.
It was operational from the 1770s to 1860.
It has more than a thousand graves of which only 314 are named.
It served the protestant community in a predominantly catholic society: Presbyterians and Anglicans.

None of the other named graves are Sandersons.
This suggests he had no family there, either by birth or marriage.

There were burials the day before and the day after Capt William
but they are not seaman.

Looking more broadly I could not find evidence of a spate of burials in July 1842
that would suggest a disaster of any sort.

I think this is telling us that William was not local but he was non-catholic.
This is consistent with a man who could have been born in Sunderland where the ship was built
who practised his faith in a Presbyterian community (Wearmouth was such a place). That is the place where my own Sanderson DNA resided in the 1790s.

DC

Regarding missing baptisms:

The Sandersons in my family history are all notoriously absent from baptism records on reason of their religious affiliation. Not that I know much about this but they were of a nonconformist denomination which chose not to pass their records to the mainstream church indexes; either that or they were refused.

I see that the ship was registered at Sunderland. This is where my Sandersons were born so if this is where the maritime Sandersons lived, they were also likely a part of this group.

Thanks Alan,

The 1846 references: do they give any further detail?

There was one, possibly two William Sandersons born c.1825 who worked as a mariner from Newcastle area. I have seen a certificate for him, something like a graduation cert that qualified him for command of a ship though it has been a long time since I saw that document and don't remember it well.

If born in 1795 he would have been 17 in 1812 when the Free Briton appeared in Quebec. Hardly old enough to have been its master. I wonder, how long does it take to rise through the ranks and be given command of a ship? Age 30? 35? Just guessing. But that would take us to 1825-1830. If the ship made regular passage between South Shields and Quebec (again, a guess) then Capt Sanderson could as easily have made his home in Quebec as in South Shields. The mention of the ship on his gravestone implies that he was still serving in his capacity as captain at the time of his death, in which case we'd be looking at a journey in 1842. A man of 47 could easily have a son in his twenties, perhaps a seaman in his own right, a fellow born c.1820. Just putting that out there as a possibility.

-DC